Telephone call processing and switching systems are, at the time of the present patent application, relatively sophisticated, computerized systems, and development and introduction of new systems continues. Much information on the nature of such hardware and software is available in a number of publications accessible to the present inventor and to those with skill in the art in general. For this reason, much minute detail of known systems is not reproduced here, as to do so would obscure the facts of the invention.
One document which provides considerable information on intelligent networks is "ITU-T Recommendation Q.1219, Intelligent Network User's Guide for Capability Set 1" , dated Apr., 1994.
At the time of filing the present patent application there continues to be remarkable growth in telephone-based information systems, which are intelligent networks. Recently emerging examples are telemarketing operations and technical support operations, among many others, which have grown apace with development and marketing of, for example, sophisticated computer equipment. More traditional are systems for serving customers of such as large insurance organizations. In some cases organizations develop and maintain their own telephony operations with purchased or leased equipment, and in many other cases, companies are outsourcing such operations to firms that specialize in such services.
In telephony art, much commercial development is in the area of what are known as call center services and systems, wherein an organization maintains one or more call centers manned by agents of the organization to provide services to clients of the organization. The call centers are typically based on a telephony switch such as a PBX, having incoming trunks and station-side ports connected to agent stations having a least a telephone. Incoming calls are routed to agents based in any of many possible routing criteria. In relatively more state-of-the-art call centers the switches are computer enhanced by being connected to processors running applications for providing additional services not provided by the switch alone. In the art the processes of such enhancement are known as computer telephony integration (CTI). It is to such systems that embodiments of the present invention are principally (but not exclusively) directed. Embodiments will in general be described relative to call centers.
In an intelligent telephony network such as described herein, incoming calls placed from anywhere in the Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) are typically routed by computerized systems known in the art as Service Control Points (SCPs.
Additional processors and software may be provided associated with an SCP for further computer enhancement. For example, when a call arrives at a control point, information about the caller may be collected and processed to help determine the final destination of the call. Then according to programmed routing rules, the call may be switched to a call center and then on to an available agent. In many intelligent networks known to the inventor, digital information pertaining to the caller may be sent ahead to a call center by means of a data link separate from the call carrier, the data link implemented between the SCP and the call center, typically through a CTI processor connected to the telephony switch at the call center. Routing in an intelligent network may be accomplished on several levels according to many different protocols.
A problem with routing within a conventional network is that the final destination for a call is often determined before the call leaves the SCP and further routing is largely automated at decentralized telephony switches within the network. This increases the possibility of errors in routing. Calls may be incorrectly routed in the first instance, and, since call transfer is a process that takes a certain length of time, there may be changes while a call is routed, so when the call arrives at the destination, the situation may have changed to the point that the cal will have too be re-routed. Further, the information at an SCP for use in determining routing of calls is typically information updated periodically, and not real-time data.
Another recent development in telephony art is what is known as Internet Protocol Network Telephony (IPNT), wherein conventional telephone calls are simulated between computers over the data network known as the Internet, using microphones and speakers operating with the computers and a graphical user interface operable on each connected computer. Several commercial vendors offer software for simulating such telephony, and similar systems may operate with data networks other than the Internet, such as through company Intranets. At the time of the present patent application such data networks are considered largely "dumb" networks rather than intelligent networks, although some routing is done. Calls are routed in the Internet, for example, by IP addresses, and IP switches and hubs are capable of altering the destination of data packets by controlling IP addresses. In embodiments of the invention that follow, although intelligent telephony networks are used in the main for examples of practicing the invention, the features of the invention are meant to apply as well to IPNT.
What is clearly needed is a better system and method to do call routing whereby determination for routing calls can be shared with decentralized routers in the field without using a separate digital network for transmitting data. In such a system determination of final routing can be made as close as possible to final destination, and information used for routing can be maintained in much closer to real time.